Three bits of background before starting this blog.
1. When I first started the BTD, I learned that kale, a vegetable I had never heard of, was highly beneficial. I ate it often at first, but because my family wouldn’t eat it and it smelled terrible when it was cooking, I gradually stopped buying it.

2. I was in a health food store and they had free samples of a new product. Kale chips. They were delicious, outstanding, crunchy, yummy! I said, “I’ll buy a bag of those.” Ouch. I didn’t look at the price: they were really expensive. Double ouch. I didn’t look at the ingredients: they were coated with lots of salt and nuts.

3. DD has been dehydrating vegetables in her oven to take to work as a snack.

So, I decided to make my own kale chips. I bought kale, washed it, dried it, and broke off chip size pieces. I sprinkled on onion and garlic powder. I put it in the oven according to DD’s instructions. It did not stink up the kitchen while it was cooking.

When it was finished, I popped a chip into my mouth. First impression made me smile. It was light and crunchy. As I kept chewing, the tougher it got and the more it tasted like. . . kale. I think the thing that made the packaged chips so delicious was the nuts.

I decided to cook the rest of the kale with onions like I used to. Pew! The kitchen smelled terrible. But kale cooked with onions tastes good. I added ground turkey and had a nice lunch.

I hope I will continue to buy kale, even if I am the only one who eats it. I’d like to experiment further with kale chips. There is potential here, I just haven’t put it all together yet.

This entry was posted on February 21st, 2012 at 09:59:57 am and is filed under Recipes.

5 comments

Kale seems to be all the rage these days. I tried making the chips and found about what you did, they were terrible. My son and I bit into them, smiled at each other, YUM!, then started chewing and spit it out in the trash can. YUK!
The only way I've ever liked kale is in a slow cooker beef stew. When small bits of it cook for 10 hours in beef juice it doesn't taste so bad.

Baby Kales are almost tasteless in salads, I include them with Baby Spinach, it is very good. Also, if you ever juice,(some don't recommend juicing a lot) Kale is a very good way to get those healthy greens in there, with little taste alteration. I was a big green vegetable hater growing up, and must admit that it takes determination to add new greens to my diet. A lot of people like Kale chips, I do not. I think it is better raw or wilted. It is also really good in turkey soup.

I cook kale all the time and have never noticed a bad smell! But I think the onions might have something to do with that. I love onions cooked with zucchini, mushrooms, green beans, any kind of beans, carrots, fennel bulb, and probably more I can't think of now. But I would never cook onions with broccoli or either kale or collards. Makes them taste yukky - that's a foodie technical term:) - and would smell bad. But kale simmered with only garlic and sea salt, then add eden foods canned cannellini beans until heated through, and dress with olive oil after cooling a few minutes (to preserve the olive oil flavor) - my family thinks THAT is wonderful! As a side dish or a pasta topping. But, beets? My HH says cooking beets smells like DIRT! lol

I first tried kale when in college about 35 years ago. It was featured in "Portuguese Kale Soup", which also featured chouriço (chorizo)-- very tasty-- at a local restaurant: A nice discovery.
These days I notice Whole Foods Market using a lot of kale in its Prepared Foods dept.: A slaw and some other salads.
And small heads of kale - especially if purple - still on their stems can look pretty in large floral arrangements!